Officials: Skimming scheme stole $600K+ from 500 in Md.

More than 500 Maryland residents were victims of an elaborate international scheme that involved thieves who gained access to their bank accounts through area ATMs, and while some of the culprits were arrested, 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins said there are ways for people to avoid similar schemes.

The international skimming scheme netted more than $600,000 for the suspects, who are all from Bulgaria, and they got away with it for more than a year, Collins reported.

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said he considers the case a fairly sophisticated crime.

"It's a pretty significant case because it requires the perpetrators to engage in a series of criminal acts in order to accomplish the objective," he said.

Exclusive bank surveillance photos obtained by the I-Team show the suspects in action. One showed Damyanov placing a skimming device on an ATM in Bel Air. Another surveillance camera captured him and H.G. Kostov installing a skimmer in the Greenspring Banking Center on Smith Avenue in Baltimore.

Collins reported they did that repeatedly, targeting dozens of banks all over the greater Baltimore area, including an Owings Mills Bank of America, and Ellicott City Columbia Bank, a Waldorf BB&T Bank and a Bel Air Bank of America.

"In order to achieve their objective, skimmers need not just the information from the card, they also need your PIN number," Rosenstein said.

To get that, officials said the suspects used miniature spy-pen cameras that would remove the tiny camera and attach it to the ATM to record victims entering their PIN numbers. They would then remove the skimmers.

Court records indicate the removed skimmers would be plugged into a computer, and the stolen information was e-mailed to co-conspirators in Bulgaria. They would decode the data and send it back to Maryland, where it would be encoded onto magnetic strips of gift cards.

"With the data then on the phony card, plus the PIN number they had recorded, they were able to access people's bank accounts," Rosenstein said.

Victim Lynette Locke, who's on disability and keeps track of every precious cent she gets, said she called her bank in a panic when it happened to her.

"There's a check that bounced because of the money they took out. There was another check bounce, another check bounce, and another check bounce," she said. "I was scared. I was saying, 'Oh my God, what's going on here?' I've never had all these crazy overdraft fees."

Collins said they took $368 from Locke, which was enough to make her checks bounce.

"I don't want somebody thinking I am writing illegal checks and not having the funds in there," she said.

Around the same time, victim Stuart Ritter got a call from his bank that put him on edge, too. He said he and his wife, Christine, were in the process of refinancing their home when they were told someone stole $1,000 out of their bank account.

"It's frustrating. It's personal. This is something where you feel like your information, your accounts, have been violated," he told Collins. "We thought it was an identity theft breach on us. So, we were concerned about all of our bank accounts and all of our credit cards."

Based on consumer complaints, federal agents staked out compromised ATM locations, waiting for the suspects to return, and they did, court records showed. By matching surveillance footage with their drivers' licenses or ID cards, officials linked the suspects to the crimes and got warrants to search their homes and hangouts.

A garage in Marriottsville was one of them. Court records showed authorities found evidence there, including gift cards, encoding materials and camera devices. However, not all of the money was there.

"Court records indicate they lived fairly modestly," Rosenstein said. "Some of the money was transferred back to accomplices in Bulgaria."

How to protect yourself

Experts said while it's a sophisticated scheme, people can do things to protect themselves.

"The skimming devices are usually attached with double-sided tape, so while they may look secure, they really are not," Rosenstein said. "If you try to wiggle the ATM device, you'd actually see that it's loose."

As for the Bulgarian thieves, Damyanov is currently serving a six-year prison sentence; Lazarov, who entered the U.S. illegally, got four years in prison, and H.G. Kostov got a two-year prison term, Collins reported. Officials said H.D. Kostov remains a fugitive.

Locke said she thinks the men got off easy and wishes she had a chance to speak to them.

"You put me through a lot of misery," she said. "I had to change to another bank and everything because of what you did to me."

Some other safety tips include avoiding lobby ATMs with broken access doors, and if there's anything suspicious like loose parts or a sticky substance around the ATM slot or keypad, report it to authorities. Officials also said to always shield your hand when entering your PIN number so it cannot be recorded.

Locke and Ritter said their banks refunded their money once the scam was discovered. However, financial fraud has an effect on everyone because losses are ultimately passed on to consumers in the form of higher fees, experts said.

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